Planning appeals likely at Cork's Good Shepherd  convent

Plans for a residential development at the Sunday’s Well site of the former Good Shepherd convent in Cork City are likely to be the subject of planning appeals after considerable local objection.

The scheme, which was permitted this week by Cork City Council, has already been the subject of objections from dozens of local residents and public representatives.

The main concerns are about the impact on the l community, whose population they said would be significantly increased.

The number of units originally proposed was 234 but this has been reduced in revised proposals by Moneda Developments Ltd following initial consideration of the plans by the council.

The company had also changed the plans from apartments-only to include some houses to provide a more suitable mix for family living.

The site backs onto the Blarney St area, where residents are concerned about the impact on their homes.

Other issues have been raised about the increased traffic that will be generated by the additional new homes, and the impact on other road users in the area.

The final permission is for 182 homes, to be provided through a combination of refurbishment of existing buildings and some new construction on the site.

Cork City Council has told the developer it must omit a planned five-storey apartment block and move another one 5m north to protect the site’s landscape character, and in the interest of the area’s visual and residential amenities.

A limit of 206 car parking spaces has been set, and a mobility management plan must be agreed with the council before any residents occupy the scheme, in the interest of traffic safety.

Any third-party appeals would require the entire application to be reconsidered by Bord Pleanála, with a report from a planning inspector likely to take several months to compile.

The Good Shepherd convent and Magdalene home at Sunday’s Well were first occupied in the early 1870s, followed soon after by an orphanage and industrial school building.

Within a decade, more than 170 women were living there, and the laundry operated until the late 1970s, when about 40 women lived there.

Having been owned for a short time by University College Cork in the 1990s, it has been in the ownership of a number of development firms since then.

A decade ago, a scheme was permitted for around 200 apartments and townhouses but the works never went ahead.

On the city’s southside, meanwhile, Cork City Council also granted permission to a large student accommodation scheme which has been the subject of significant opposition from local residents.

The project proposed by Lyonshall (Bandon Road) Ltd would see 44 apartments built with 322 bed-spaces.

It is planned to develop the scheme on a two-acre site between Lough Road and Bandon Road near UCC.